Well so far Dave has re-signed 12 of last years squad, and apart from the ditching of Tom Gomes I have to agree with everyone he has brought back. Its a pity that Pellers and Colin Ward have decided not to retrn. Pellers was outstanding in his tireless hassling of the opposition and he was the perfect foil to the finesse players like Joe Feracciolli. Colin Ward was our out and out scorer, and despite only joining half way through the season was way up in the points scoring chart. A full season from him and I am sure we would have finished much higher in the league, and he would have been near the top of the League's point scoring chart. We will miss them both.
But, to the new season. With the demise of the red line in offside calls watch out for the speed of Denis Burke - let's hope he can convert more of the one to ones than he did last season. Not sure about Dave's decision to put Greg Burke in offence - maybe Dave sees something in Greg's play that suggests he will be more effective in that role. The rest of last years re-signings speak for themselves - Todd Kelman will improve, and in my estimation it wont be too long before he is held in the same esteem as Shayne. Todd came into his own towards the end of last season and put away a good few important goals so watch out for him again this season. Jeff Johnstone again with a full season will get better and better and I will always remember him popping one in the Bison net whilst flat on his back (ooer missus). Matt, Rob and Shayne are the backbone of our defence, and I am waiting with baited breath to see who Dave has signed to join them. TheChief will resume his acquaintance with naughty Mr Trumbley (more of that later) and Joe will continue to be the League's top playmaker. If Dale Junkin returns really fit this season let's hope he can emulate his first season in the Superleague. The ability's there if only he can harness it.
So we come to the net-minders. I reckon we have the best pairing in the league. Nobody is better than Bernie when he is on song, and Brian Greer will improve to really make Bernie fight for that top spot. Hope Dave gives him more chances than Jim did to show us his true worth. Its always good to know your back-up net-minder is as good as your number one.
Now for the new guys. Hmmmm. Reports I have got on PC Drouin suggest that he is one to watch out for. Seems he has an eye for the net - let's hope so. Sal Manganaro was one of the University of Massachusetts' leading goal scorers and quite a feisty player, very much in the mould of Pellers. Norm Dezainde, with his PIMs seems more an out and out offensive forward, whilst I hope that Chris Rowland, if he does arrive, is worth the wait. These last three had a total of more than 12 hours of penalties in the 96/97 season so I hope that we are not going to see fair play sacrificed for brawn. Perhaps Mr Trumbley will be kept in his place, but somehow I doubt it. I really hope my tinge of pessimism is just that and the newcomers' statistics are all in the past. Whatever, we could do with a toughening up in the forward department so let's hope that we get a good points to sin bin ratio out of them.
All in all a season to look forward to, and I'll miss the end of it as I will be travelling. Aw shucks!!!!
